Hand of God
by The-Broken-Trinity
Summary: While being forced to clean out her uncle's cellar as punishment, Claudia finds an interesting artifact. Witchblade Xover


**Assassin's Creed does not belong to me, that belongs to Ubisoft and Witchblade belongs to Top Cow Productions**

Okay so for any one of you guys who aren't familiar with Witchblade that's okay since it's from Claudia's POV and she knows nothing about it either. I tried describing the armor but if you're having trouble visualizing it, simply image Google "Top Cow Witchblade". The armor is pretty unusual so it's best to Google haha.

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"Oh my, this place is absolutely revolting!" Claudia Auditore da Firenze squealed as a large black spider crawled across the rotting wooden floors. Claudia currently stood in the cellar of her uncle Mario's small mansion, cleaning it out. Claudia had had a row with her uncle after he refused to allow her to accompany her brother back to Florence. She had missed her old home and her friends, she detested sitting in her uncle's home doing financial work, it was so tedious! There was only so much you could do within the grounds of the villa and within Monteriggioni as well. Claudia wished to go adventuring with her brother but due to her young age, both Ezio and Mario disallowed her to leave and because of this, Claudia acted extremely uncivilized towards her brother and uncle, this earned her the punishment of having to clean out the cellar.

The young girl was ordered to separate various items, one for broken or useless junk that would be thrown out, another pile would be for items that would be put for sale(at least, to her delight she could keep whatever money she made), and one last pile for anything she wanted to keep. The chore didn't sound _too_ bad at the time he ordered it but on the first day she climbed down, she was horrified to find the place dark and murky. Dust covered every surface of the room, the floors, the rotten crates, and any sheets covering old furniture. Claudia had given up trying to keep her dress clean on the first day of work, now she changed into it every time she went down into the basement, which in its self was a chore. Her dress was no peasant's dress, it took a long time to take off and out on. By the third day of punishment, Claudia had amassed a decently sized pile of forgotten items and trinkets for each of the things she found: old silverware, long since lost it's shine and luster, broken mirrors, old tomes in languages she could not read, tapestry with unusual ornate symbols and mythological creatures on them, and even jewelry, which she kept of course.

'_It's just not fair, Ezio did things he wasn't supposed to do at my age',_ Claudia thought bitterly as she placed a small rag to her mouth and nose, her other hand going to the lid of yet another crate, she prepared herself for the onslaught of dust that would come her way. She closed her eyes and held her breath as she ripped the lid off the crate. Despite her precautions, Claudia still coughed and wheezed as dust poured out of the crate, the majority stuck to her hair, face, and already grayed out dress. After minutes of having a coughing fit, Claudia finally opened her eyes and peered into the crate, wondering what she would find next.

"What is this?"

Claudia frowned as she stared at an unusual looking gauntlet, she had never seen a piece of armor like this. There were two gems placed in the back part of the hand, one red and one yellow, another blue gem was lower down near the opening of the armor as well. The design on the armor was most unusual, parts of the metal looked smooth and others almost scaly. The smooth silvery sections of the metal seemed to be arranged in such a way that it showed the tendons and separation of the muscles for the right lower arm and hand if one were to put on the gauntlet. Where the actual muscle would be was where the gold looking scales were, though the scales were under the smooth metallic areas. "Probably a gift from some foreign nobleman," she mumbled to herself as she picked it up. It was the only piece of armor among other junk within the crate, the rest of the armor must have been lost or destroyed, since there was no other sign of armor hidden away in the crates.

Claudia bit her lip as she stared at the piece of armor, a sudden urge to place her arm within the gauntlet came over her. She shrugged and place it on her right arm, after all, what was the worst that could happen? The thing was much too big for her arm a she easily slid it in, she wrung her fingers as she observed the large gems. Claudia yelped, shocked by the fact that the armor literally became smaller, it now fit her arm like a glove. She brought her quivering arm closer to her face, examining the armor once more.

"What the-?" Claudia gasped as she realized the thing on her spread up her arm, forming armor over the rest of her arm and shoulder, tearing up her dusty dress as it did so. "What is this!" the young girl shrieked as she used her left hand in an attempt to yank the apparently living gauntlet off her right arm. Unfortunately, the thing did _not_ budge, by this time, some of the armor had already spread up to her neck and was working it's way down her chest and left arm, forming a partial covering over it. Claudia gaped at herself, watching shredded pieces of her dress fall silently to the ground. She clawed at her chest desperately, "Get off, get off, get off, GET OFF!" She screamed as rivulets of tears streaked down her cheeks.

"_Yes." _Claudia froze at the sound of the voice, "_yes,"_ it whispered again.

Claudia's hands flew up to her head, "no no no no no no!" The voice was inside her _head_. "LEAVE ME ALONE YOU- YOU DEMON!" Claudia took several deep breaths and listened, but the voice had gone. The teenager slowly rose, staring at all torn material on the floor, she looked up and gasped, seeing her own reflection on one of the full length mirrors she'd left propped up against the wall. Besides the the armor, she was now completely nude, she slowly made her way towards the mirror and observed her reflection. The armor had completely covered both her arms, shoulders and neck, as well as lower legs. Small amounts of the armor had crept to her face, only covering bits of her cheeks and forehead. The armor covered most of her breasts and a some of her rib cage, a small strip of it ran down the side of her torso and covered her womanly area, as well as running around the length of her thighs, finally spreading out to cover her knees, calves, and feet. her eyes also glowed a yellow tinge, like a cat's eyes.

The best description someone could give was that she looked like a succubus, the spikes protruding from her upper back and her now clawed hands gave her gave her a terrifying look while her exposed flesh was enough to tempt any man. Claudia's fear had evaporated the moment she had seen her own reflection, she didn't understand why, she should have been horrified by the sight, but she wasn't. She felt strong, powerful, she didn't feel like that helpless little girl who had lost her father and brothers. This thing on her wouldn't hurt her, she couldn't explain how she knew that, she just _did_. In the distance, she herd a door open and shut, with footsteps echoing, she looked up, eyes wide. That was her uncle, surely he'd have her killed upon seeing her like this, wouldn't he? He'd called her a witch and have her burned.

"_Go."_ The voice whispered, without a second's thought, she sped out of the cellar, intent on making it to her room. _"Yes."_ Claudia nodded to herself, it wanted her in her room. She stopped and crouched behind a pillar, he wasn't in the main hall, she glanced up to the second story, her mother was probably still in her room. She dove out out her hiding spot and sped up the stairs.

More foot steps.

They were coming from the second story, Claudia's heart pounded as she raced to her room, she wrenched the door open and threw herself in. She ran to the right and threw open the doors to her wardrobe, nearly ripping them off their hinges as she grabbed her night gown. The footsteps were growing louder. She quickly pulled her night gown over her body as the door opened, her uncle walked in, a slight frown on his face as he read from a parchment he was holding. He looked up and froze, they stared at each other for several second before the assassin said:

"Claudia, I hope you're not going to bed filthy like that!" Claudia looked down at herself, the armor was completely gone! There was no trace of the gauntlet on her right arm, instead, there was a small silver bracelet with a large red gem, and two smaller gems, one yellow and one blue. She looked back up, opening and closing her mouth several times.

"Er, I-I I'm just really tired, I wanted to go to sleep."

Her uncle sighed and shook his head, "no, you will be washed before hand, go to the restroom and take that off, someone will be there to wash you shortly."

He made to leave but stopped, "that, that gauntlet down in the cellar, where did you get it? It looks foreign?" Claudia asked.

Her uncle slowly turned around, "do not touch it Claudia, do you understand? It's dangerous, apparently it's been known to bite the arms off of men who dared put it on."

Claudia blinked, "um, you believe in urban legends, uncle?"

The older assassin stared at her for several seconds, "well, no. But I've never tried it on to see if it's true." He shrugged sheepishly, " I don't know where it came from but it had rested within a monastery in Sicily before being brought here. It was called the 'Hand of God' by the monks, they said whoever was worthy enough to wield it would hold God's wrath within their grasp. Enough of this nonsense, the armor is old and valuable, do not sell it and do not break it, understand?"

Claudia gave him a bright smile, "understood." The smile stayed on her face as she watched him leave. Apparently, the gauntlet did not bite off the arms of women and it was _not_, in fact, a demon, but God speaking to her! She looked back at the bracelet on her wrist, touching the red gem, this was much more interesting than going back to Florence.

FIN

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Well I hope you guys enjoyed it! If you're interested in Witchblade, check out Top Cow's web site. ;)


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